Patients are vital to a practice. Without them, a doctor has no business, no matter how excellent his or her education is or how nice his or her office looks. A practice can’t exist, much less grow, without patients—particularly the “perfect patients” who are presenting with the conditions you like to treat. Naturally, doctors want many more of these people coming in their doors. So the question becomes: how do you attract new patients and bring back current ones?

The Secret to More Patients

The answer is marketing your practice well. Marketing keeps your reception room filled with the kinds of people you want to see. It works to attract those perfect patients and brings them back in the future, so you see them consistently and greatly enhance your bottom-line profitability. Unfortunately, most doctors are frustrated with their marketing because isn’t working for them, and they don’t want to waste money on ineffective marketing efforts. They would rather invest their money in something that produces a substantial return. Marketing the right way, however, doesn’t cost you a thing.

No-Cost Marketing

No cost doesn’t mean you don’t spend money. You do have to invest in your marketing efforts. It does mean, however, that you’re able to see how every dollar you spend is not only made back, but earns you more. Marketing goes from being a costly expense to a valuable investment that pays for itself. It does this by attracting more of those perfect patients and increasing your PVV—your Per Visit Value.

Understanding your per visit value is important, since it, along with your goals and perfect patients, helps direct your marketing. Your overall PVV is easy to calculate: take your total collections for a specific time period, such as a year, and divide them by your total number of visits within that same period. That number is your average per visit value. This can range from as low as $60 to as high as $280 depending on how you practice. Increasing your total PVV by even $5 can mean a significant total increase in profits for a single year. Seeing more of your “perfect patients” directly correlates with more profits for you. It’s a wonderful thing.

Your marketing has to speak directly to the problems these people are already worried about. It means reaching out to the heel pain sufferers, diabetic neuropathy patients, orthotics users, injured athletes, and self-conscious fungal nail folks to educate them about their problem and show them how you can help. Broadcasting your name and experience on social media or a radio ad won’t bring in the patients you want. People don’t care enough about you or your practice (they are only able to care and worry about themselves and their loved ones), and they’ll forget you quickly anyway. Building a plan that uses multiple mediums to highlight how you can help relieve their pain, however, will catch the attention of the people you are trying to reach.

If you’re serious about attracting more patients, you need to be serious about your marketing. Top Practices can help you set plans in place to make this a reality. Our four pillars of marketing have worked for dozens of practices since 2007, and it can work for yours, too. Check out our Mastermind Group application for more information, or contact us to ask questions. You can e-mail us at [email protected] or call (717) 725-2679.